The hunt for the London bombers begins

Jul 8th 2005
From The Economist Global Agenda

More than 50 are now known to have been killed in explosions on London's Underground system and on board a bus, apparently timed to coincide with Britain's hosting of the Group of Eight summit. A huge hunt for the bombers is now under way

THERE have been plenty of warnings that London might be the target of a big terror attack—and indeed, from the second world war Blitz to the IRA bombing campaign of the 1970s-1990s, Londoners have long been used to living with the risk of attack. But no amount of preparedness could reduce the shock of the chain of bomb explosions that hit the British capital’s transport system during the morning rush on Thursday July 7th.

By Friday morning, police were able to confirm that there had been more than 50 fatalities in the bombings, with around 700 people injured. There were four explosions: one in a tunnel near Liverpool Street Underground station; one in a tunnel between Russell Square and King's Cross stations; one in a train at Edgware Road station; and the fourth on a bus near Russell Square. Eye witnesses told of scenes of carnage and panic in the Underground tunnels. Adding to the confusion, controlled explosions were carried out on suspect packages found elsewhere on the city's public-transport system, though these proved to be false alarms.

Police said on Friday that there was “absolutely nothing” to suggest that the attacks had been suicide-bombings—though they could not entirely rule this out. Thus a massive hunt is now under way for the bombers, as well as those who may have helped them prepare the attacks. Police urged those with potentially useful information to call them on a special telephone line (0800 789 321).

The assumption so far is that the attackers were Islamists, possibly with links to al-Qaeda. On Thursday evening, Jack Straw, Britain's foreign secretary, said that the bombings had “the hallmarks of an al-Qaeda-related attack”. And the government says it is taking seriously a statement posted on the internet, purportedly from a group linked to al-Qaeda. The statement claimed that “mujahideen” (holy warriors) had carried out the attacks in retaliation for Britain's military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan—though such statements have sometimes proved unreliable in the past.

A serious worry now is that the bombers may quickly strike again, as happened after recent attacks in other European cities attributed to Islamists. Just three weeks after the Madrid train bombings of March 2004, which killed 191 people, a bomb was found on a railway line south of the Spanish capital. And five days after the killing of 25 people in the suicide-bombings of two synagogues in Istanbul, in November 2003, there were further attacks on a British bank and the British consulate in the city, killing a further 32. Another fear is that, if cornered, the bombers may blow themselves up, taking as many people with them as possible, as the seven suspected Madrid bombers did when surrounded by police some days after the attacks.

Despite such fears, many Londoners plucked up the courage to travel in to work in the centre of the capital on Friday morning. Underground and bus services were returning to normal, with the exception of those train lines hit by the bombs. Queen Elizabeth and other members of the royal family visited those casualties still being treated in hospital.

The explosions came as Tony Blair, the British prime minister, was hosting the summit of Group of Eight leaders at Gleneagles in Scotland—and the day after London was chosen to host the 2012 Olympic games. Mr Blair and the other G8 leaders, plus the heads of government from the world's leading developing nations, stepped out of their meetings at Gleneagles to affirm, as Mr Blair put it, “our complete resolution to defeat this terrorism”. Security was stepped up on public-transport systems in Washington, DC and other G8 capitals as news of the London attacks reached them.

It may be some time before it becomes clear—if it ever does—who was responsible for the attacks. Police say no warning was given of the bombs and it appears that there was no advance intelligence that attacks were being planned. Though the leadership structure of al-Qaeda has been disrupted since the American-led invasion of Afghanistan, in the wake of the September 11th 2001 attacks, the terror group clearly still has cells of sympathisers with the capability to procure bomb-making materials and recruit attackers.

The attacks will have required a fair amount of planning—possibly including practice runs—and the bombers may well have received logistical back-up from other people. The security services will now be searching desperately for some clue, however small, that will provide a trail leading back to the terrorists and their support network. In the case of the Madrid bombs, a mobile phone used in one of the bombs, which failed to explode, was traced back to the shop where it was bought and hence to the gang of bombers.

Attacks already foiled

Should Britain be doing more to prevent such attacks? Earlier this year, Mr Blair’s government struggled to push through Parliament a terrorism law containing strong powers for the state to impose “control orders” restraining the liberties of terror suspects, even in the absence of sufficient evidence to bring charges. This followed a ruling by the Law Lords, Britain’s most senior court, striking down a measure in an earlier terrorism bill that had allowed the government to detain suspects indefinitely. A senior security source who briefed The Economist last year gave details of several attempted terrorist attacks on the capital that he said had already been foiled.

While Britain’s security services have strong anti-terror powers and London has among the world’s best contingency plans for coping with such serious incidents, its transport system, like any other big city’s, is highly vulnerable. It is almost impossible to prevent determined bombers bringing explosive devices on to trains and buses, and no amount of planning or security measures will eliminate such a risk entirely. Londoners understand this and they—and the security services—have known that it was only a matter of time before something terrible happened.

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